Seventh-day Adventist and Mormon Leaders Discuss Cooperation

From left to right: Ella Simmons, a vice president of the Adventist Church; L. Tom Perry, a member of the Mormon church’s Quorum of the Twelve Apostles; Lowell Cooper, a vice president of the Adventist Church; and John Graz, director of the Adventist Church’s Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department. [photo: Ansel Oliver]

“We have found that it’s good to have you as neighbors and partners,” says Seventh-day Adventist vice-president Lowell Cooper to his Mormon guests.

Top Mormon, Adventist leaders meet in advance of media push

The Salt Lake Tribune | May 1, 2014 | by Peggy Fletcher

Leaders of two of the world’s fastest-growing Christian denominations met recently to discuss an upcoming social media campaign designed to promote faith and religious freedom.

Mormon Elders L. Tom Perry and Ronald A. Rasband huddled with senior Seventh-day Adventist leaders, including Adventist Church Vice President Lowell Cooper, on April 24 at Adventist headquarters in Silver Spring, Md.

The visiting LDS officials discussed the media initiative — dubbed “Faith Counts” — that will “make the case for why faith, family and religious freedom need to be preserved in society,” reports the Adventist News Network.

They also offered a preview of the campaign, produced by a multi-faith group and set to debut within a month.

Perry, an apostle in the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, emphasized the need to “find a way [of] keeping faith alive in the 14- to 35-year-olds so that faith will grow with them, so they’ll have a foundation for their life,” according to the LDS Church’s newsroom website. 

He also noted Mormonism’s recent Christ-centered Easter video, titled “Because of Him,” that captured nearly 5.3 million Web views.

Rasband, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, discussed partnering with Adventists in “defense of religious freedom,” the LDS website reports.

“We are trying to join with people of good faith like you,” he said, “to help fight these very basic battles that are going on in the world.”

Cooper welcomed such a partnership, according the Adventist News Network. “We have found that it’s good to have you as neighbors and partners,” he told his Mormon guests.

The LDS Church reports more than 15 million members worldwide, while Adventists have more than 18 million.

Source:  http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/57885998-180/adventist-news-faith-church.html.csp